Isles's Fall
by Captain-EliseNic
Summary: When well organized rebels take control of the Korlonig Isles the surviving members of the ruler ship send out groups of people still loyal to the throne to Araluen to ask for help. I'm going to say this now; the rating is subject to change and is very very loosely marked. Ranger's Apprentice doesn't belong to me in any way.
1. Chapter 1

Silk stood at the bow of the ship, his eyes on the lantern that was one of the only marker of the ship that was pursuing them. Much to his dismay the night was dark, the stars and moon cloaked by evil looking dark clouds that were the clear warning signs of a bad storm.

Footsteps behind him had him twisting on his feet, right hand going for the dagger that hung in its sheath on the left side of his belt, he relaxed when he recognized the slightly shorter woman who had started to approach him, she paid no attention to his quick reaction and he realized that she had likely let him hear her coming so he didn't stab her when she came up behind him.

"The captain said we should be docking soon" she said, her eyes looking over his shoulder to see the lantern that he had been watching.

"Did you ask him when he's planning on doing after this?" he asked, over the three week sea voyage he had come to accept that they were all fugitives from a government, admittedly not one he would ever submit to but the principal still stood and any government would be against a man helping their enemies .

"Exact words?" she questioned, "Well yes Velvet that would be nice" he retorted, hearing the smirk in his words just a few seconds to late, "wait no-" he started to see but she cut in, a mischievous light dancing in her green blue eyes.

"I figured that I'd just be waitin' 'til you folks are bring in yore new army an' then I'll be waitin' to take you back o'er to the islands." He winced at her horrible impression of the captain's strong accent, one frequently attributed to sailors.

"Velvet you know how I say that practice makes perfect right?" he said, hiding his own smile as he came up with a retort, she nodded and he allowed a small grin to cross his face "I'd suggest that you stop, bad practice is the same thing as no practice" he added.

She scowled at him for a moment then blinked as she looked at something over his shoulder, "I don't suppose that them putting out the lantern is a good sign" she said and he whipped around, his cowl falling from his head as he did so.

"Damnation" he cursed, turning around just as quickly as he had the first time and grabbing her arm, yanking her back away from the bow of the ship.

"Get all of our people and the horses to the prow" he snapped, eyes searching from the captains distinctive red hat, Velvet had already disappeared below deck by the time he spotted the man and grabbed his arm. The man turned to yell at him then paused, mouth open as he saw who had grabbed him.

The man immediately began to make hasty apologizes but Silk held up a hand, not the one on the man's arm, to stop him "we've not the time for formalities" he said briskly. "We're about to be rammed and unless you want to be one of those captains who go down with their ship then you'd best try and get most of your crew off." He ordered, looking into the man's pale gray eyes.

"And 'ow would you be knowin' this?" the man demanded "Would it be some of that 'unter magic we've all been 'earing so much about?", Silk automatically rolled his eyes at the suggest. He supposed that the general assumption was expected considering that the uHunHunters had been created to be a parody of the rangers of Arulan, a group largely assumed to be partakers in the works of dark magic .

"No! You've spent enough time with Velvet to know we don't have any magic." he replied sharply, a growl in his voice "You've fought other ships before, right?" he asked and the man nodded "Well what does it normally mean when a ship puts out it's lanterns while making a night run right behind some one?" he snapped the question and saw the realization in the man's eyes. He quickly released the man's arm and let him run off barking orders to his crew.

Rather than one of his men coming up from below deck a member of the crew came bounding up from below decks a panicked expression on his face, with some alarm of his own Silk noticed that the man was soaked straight through. He glanced around to see the captain busy giving orders and grabbed the man's arm. "What's happening?" he snapped into the man's face.

"Rear storage got scraped by a rock" the man said, stopping repeatedly to breath, something that was clearly made more difficult below decks by the abundance of water and lack of air. Silk rather quickly let go of the man and ran past him heading below deck. The rear storage was where they were keeping the horses and if they didn't get out then Silk's men would be easy pickings once they got to shore, or rather if they got to shore.

As he ran he knocked against several doors, he had memorized each room being used by someone in his group the first night they had been aboard. Each time a head popped out he would repeat the same message, "we're about to be rammed, either help me with the horses or get above deck and get ready to jump. At one point he staggered, legs twisting together to sending him sprawling as the ship jerked to the side with a creaking of reluctant timbers.

He felt some ones arm under his arm dragging him to his feet and looked to see his and Velvet's apprentice Talon standing beside him, "Velvet ordered me to help with the horses, she said she was going above deck to see how much longer we have left" the boy seemed to hesitate over some words as if being careful to make sure he was pronouncing them correctly which was normal for him. The lad had had a strong accent when he had first been apprenticed to the two of them and they had worked with him to get rid of it, it was good to see that even peril didn't break his training.

He nodded briskly, not letting his relief at his partner not being in the most immediate danger show on his face, he didn't want to give Talon any more clues to just how close his mentors really were as he would be duty bound to mention to the head hunter, _providing we even have a head hunter and providing we all live through what's to come _he thought wryly.

He came across his first problem with the door leading down to the storage bunk, the water was holding it shut and it required him to slam his full weight into it in order for it to open, or course that resulted in him being sent sprawling across to room to end up soaked with water and Talon being knocked over backwards by the force of the water leaving the room and running down the hall.

Silk got to his feet first and made his way through the water, having to fight the current as it made its way out the door trying to make his way towards the stalls. He could make out the dark forms of the horses as one tossed its head and another kicked out at the stable wall. Any other horses would be panicking at the frigid water invading their stalls but all the horses bred on the southern isles were painstakingly trained to be the calmest and most obedient horses.

He could make out the shape of the hole in the wall from where he stood but only as a shade of lighter black on a darker black background. He squinted at it, trying to judge if the one large battle horse would fit through the hole. He was distracted from his thoughts by the lessening current around his legs and he turned to see Talon standing by the now closed door.

"I figured that we'd get them out easier if there was less of a current." Silk nodded at his apprentices words before turning to study the gaping hole in the wall, it was bigger than the crew member had lead him to believe, he guessed it was up to his shoulders and only a little of it was below the water line. He realized that whatever moment the captain was making to avoid being rammed had moved the boat so the hole was on the more sheltered side, facing in towards the bay.

He quickly waded his way through the now knee deep water and began unfastening the gates to each horse's stall, Talon did the same on the other side of the row. Both of them were aware of the time limit they were on and the constantly rising flow of water only served to further their awareness of just how quickly they needed to move.

He couldn't help the long train of curses that he spat when he turned to see that all the horses had remained in the stalls, evident they preferred the enclosed area to stronger current outside in the main room, with another spurt of curses he turned back and grabbed the reins of the only stallion. As an unofficial rule Hunters stuck to geldings and mares as their mounts while mounted warriors went to stallions. He figured releasing the stallion would send the rest of the horses fleeing.

He was luck that they had elected to saddle the horses complete with saddle bags and water proof wrappings to protect the horses last night in order to be able to get off the ship quickly. While the saddles were loose they would stay on and dry while the horses swam to shore.

He forced the horse out of its stall and urged it towards the hole; he repeatedly had to go back and smack his hand against the rump of the stallion in order to force him out through the hole. He hated causing any horse pain and the stallion's wild eyes had him completely aware of how much he was frightening the mount. He made a mental promise to give the horse apples later.

Sure enough as soon as the stallion's hooves meant water without any resistance below on the other side of the hole he let out a loud neigh and began to swim for shore, Silk turned around to see the rest of the horses making their way very quickly towards him. He made an attempt to get out of their way but the water that was now up to his waist slowed his movements enough so the first horse pushed him out through the hole.

He twisted in the water, trying to free his limbs from the tangled cloth of his cloak; the water was bitterly cold, enough so to have his finger tips feeling somewhat numb already, giving up his efforts to free himself from his cloak he starting thrashing his way to the surface, his entangled limbs all moving at once as he tried to force himself upwards.

His head bobbed up alongside the ship, coughing water from his lungs he managed to free one arm and reached out to find the hole in the side of ship. He was in the shadow of the ship and it being so dark out meant that everything was almost pitch black.

He had to bite back a roar of pain as he was slammed into the side of the ship by a strong wave and his questing arm was snapped back, pinned by the body of a horse. Before he could pull back the horses thrashing hooves got entangled in the edge of his cloak pulling him back under water.

Unfortunately he had been in the process of drawing breath when he had been yanked under and now had a mouth full of water and an urgent need to cough. He couldn't see a thing with the water as murky as it was and he no longer had any idea which way was up.

A sudden jerk on his hood had him being pulled up backwards to the surface, he broke the top of the water with a gasp and got slapped in the face by a wave, sending him into a fit of coughing with all this going on it took him a while to realize he was still being pulled through the water. He felt hot breath on the back of his neck.

Still being held by his collar he awkward reached back with one arm only to have to stop to bite back a screech of pain, while he had still been struggling to get to the surface he had managed to ignore the pain but now he had become uncomfortably aware of how his arm throbbed and just how numb his fingers where becoming.

Reaching with his other arm his hand encountered soaked velvety fur and lean muscles, he couldn't help the small grin that crossed his lips as he realized that Kal, his horse, was his rescuer. "Decided not to let me drown then bud?" he murmured and he found himself jerking up and down as Kal nodded his head vigorously up and down and felt the hot air as the horse huffed out a breath. "I suppose it's just because I feed you eh?" he said quietly punctuating the phrase with a wince as his arm brushed against his horse's chest.

The sound of cracking wood brought him back to his current predicament and he realized that he rapidly being pulled away from his men. "Kal turn around" he said firmly, hunter horses were trained to understand spoken commands even if it was more of an excuse for lone hunters who regularly took to speaking to their mounts.

His horses merely nodded his head again, making Silk gasp as his injured arm smacked against the horse's neck again "No stop that and turn around" he ordered only to have the horse nod extremely vigorously again. This time he was unable to order the horse to turn around again as he was too busy trying to catching his breath and ignore the nauseating pain.

"I believe you've made your point" Silk said, keeping anger out of his voice only through supreme effort, apparently his own horse didn't think he should be permitted into a fight or even where one was likely to occur. "Now turn around!" he said firmly, the sound of a huge crash caught his attention and he twisted free of his horse's grip.

Using his uninjured arm he pulled himself Kal's back and sat backwards in the wrapped saddle, the moon had finally broken free of its cloudy shield in time for him to see the splintered halves of the ship he had spent the past month sailing on sinking under the surface. It was clear that they captain had tried something that had only resulted in him getting rammed.

He narrowed his eyes to try and search the water but the moon had once more hidden behind the clouds and the only light came from the now relit lantern on the prow of the other ship and try as a might he couldn't see any one in the water.

As his hopes of there being any other escapees from his group dropped he became aware of the fact the he was shivering and he couldn't stop himself from doing so and that Kal was still making his way towards the shore.

Suddenly Kal tossed his head and snort as he stood so the water was just brushing his chest and began to walk slowly out of the water, head drooping. Aware of what was to come Silk quickly dismounted and took a few steps as Kal stopped to shake off any excess water.

He didn't bother grabbing the gelding's reins, they were wrapped on the front of the saddle, loose enough that he had full range of movement without any restrictions plus he didn't think he would be able to hold on if the horse decided to go ahead and he wouldn't wander far from Silk anyhow.

They had come ashore close to where the ship's captain had been going to dry dock the ship and as Silk looked up his eyes were drawn to the welcoming woods. The initial plan had been to head back into the woods in groups to scout for an ideal place to camp but for now he decided it was safer to just make his own way back and hope someone else would take the same route.

"C'mon" he said to Kal, silently gagging on the foul taste of salt water that lingered across his throat, he staggered slowly across the tilting sand. He had never considered just how exhausting a near drowning could be and just how sore it would leave him.

It only took a few steps for his foot to fall on a patch of sand that shifted more so than he expected and send him sprawling across the ground. He stumbled back to his feet again and saw Kal, now laying awkwardly on the ground give him another nod, with a mumble about why horses had become so human Silk took the invitation and swung on leg awkward over his mounts back and rested his forehead against the back of the horses neck and closed his eyes.

He realized that these motions were mistakes as the slight rocking of Kal's back with his steady strides began to lull him to a half asleep state, as hard as he tried to fight it he still drifted off.


	2. Chapter 2

The next time Silk became aware of what was going on around him his arm was in a sling and he could feel the sand that was caked all over his skin. He raised his other hand to swipe at the sand he could feel caked in his eyes before he opened them to look around. He had to blink a few time in order to remove what felt like most of the beach from the corners of his eyes.

He sat up slowly; he was lying on a cloak that had been spread under a pine tree, in the center of its branches in the slightly hidden hollow between said branches and the truck. He still wore his hood but someone had tucked the mask inside and taken it off him, leaving it lying against his back.

As he reached around awkward to pull the comfortingly familiar fabric over his white blond hair and recovered the lower half of his face with the mask he noticed he was dry, considering he had fallen asleep, or passed out, on Kal dripping wet waking up nice and dry was a pleasant relief.

He made his quiet way out from under the branches of the tree, evidently someone had managed to gather the survivors together and they had made camp in a grove of pine trees on a slight hill, a sound choice as they were hidden in the middle and had the high ground.

He could see Flynndan, one of the first people he had met when he had came to the city for his apprentice ceremony , the dark eyed man was the guardian of the diplomat who had accompanied them. With a jolt of worry Silk glanced around, looking for the strawberry blonde girl. He sighed with relief when he saw her curled up between Talon and one of the youngest guards.

Actually as he looked around the clearing he noticed that the young boy was one of only four guards, other than Flynndan, that remained with the group. He could see Velvet fast asleep in a sitting position against a tree, a tan skinned boy with his hair in braids held together with charms who Silk recalled the captain of the ship introduced as his son and Arch, the other hunter who had accompanied them, sleeping on his feet slouched against a tree.

With a small smile he made his way across the small field to wake up Arch, the tall man had probably just come off watch and he rested against the tree to remove his boots and drifted off within moments if he had been anywhere as tired as Silk himself had been.

Reaching up he touched Arch's shoulder and winced as the man moved quickly and twisted, slamming him up the tree he had been slumped against a moment before while he still blinked sleep from his eyes. Silk put his left hand up in a joking sign of surrender, "my apologizes" he said, "next time I'll allow you to sleep against a tree."

Arch's sleep hazed eyes widened and he let go of Silk, "Sorry mate" he said, his dockside accent slipping into his words. "But you know better than to try and wake me up, you've know me long enough" he added, slapping Silk's shoulder hard enough to make him wince. Sometime his friend forgot his own strength, he was half again as tall as Silk who was by no mean short and he was entirely made of muscle without an inch of excess body weight.

Kirlia awoke slowly, she was curled on her left side with a cloak that smelled like the sea wrapped around her, for a second her sleep fuzzed brain was unable to comprehend where she was and why there where two other warm bodies lying on either side of her.

Suddenly their terrified flight from Altaria came back to mind ad she shuddered, shortly after the ship had been rammed the guard who had been assigned to get her safely to had been struck by a lucky arrow fired by the guards of the false king.

After that Flynndan, her official guardian, had taken over for his man and guided her over to the woods until they had found this small alcove. He had left her in the hidden alcove with his trainee, a boy named Jace and the son of the captain of ship that had brought them here whose name she had forgotten while he had gone to gather other survivors.

She slowly made her way to her feet, eyes round as she noticed just how diminished their group was. She mentally calculated just how small they had been when they started off and how small they were now. They had started out with a squadron of guards, not counting Flynndan, three hunters and a hunter's apprentice now they were down to five guards, counting Flynndan and his protégé while the rest of the numbers remained the same with the addition of one new boy who had just lost his father. All and all prospects had actually gotten worse than they had been.

Her clothes where full of sand that she couldn't shake out no matter how hard she tried to, she was about to start cursing when a boys low chuckle interrupted her. "What do you want?" she snapped, her voice strained by frustration not holey directed at the annoying sand.

"Silk wants me to tell you that you should get ready to go. We're leaving as soon as we can." Talon said and she rolled her eyes.

"I gathered that much, I hardly suspected that we would be staying here for very long. While it is sheltered it's hardly safe for us to remain." She retorted and he shrugged, she looked up from trying to shake out her clothing to see that he was holding the reins of the mare that she had rode on their hasty escape from the castle.

Without speaking to him again she made her way over to the horse's side only to find that she wasn't tall enough to pull herself up into the saddle, she refrained from letting out an annoyed sigh and turned back to him.

"I don't suppose you could give me a hand?" she asked and he obliged, kneeling and cupping his hands so she could step in them and he could give her the extra boost she needed to get into the saddle. She had to bite back a yelp as he nearly boosted her up and over the saddle, it was only her quick thinking in grabbing the back of it that allowed her to land on it; albeit with significantly less grace than she had hoped for.

She heard him chuckle again as she squirmed into a more comfortable position in the saddle but by the time she turned to retort he was gone. She urged the mare; she had decided to call her Silver due to her mostly white coat, over to the rest of the group and took her place behind Flynndan and in front of Jace, his apprentice.

She watched as the others in the group settled into place, none of the guards had their horses except for Flynndan and Jace. The hunters all still had their horses, a small miracle that she chalked up to their excellent training.

The group set off with Silk in the lead, Silver followed the horse in front of her without any desire to stray from the group which gave Kirlia time to look around the group and consider what was going to happen.

One of the guards was walking with the aid of what seemed to be a hastily trimmed branch and she could see the blood stained length of cloth wrapped around his leg. Silk was holding the reins of his horse in only one hand with the other arm in a sling.

The fact that all the hunters had donned the hoods and masks that were tools of their trade sent a chill down her spine. The head wear was intended to give them an air of mystery and prevent the criminals that they dealt with from learning their identities. While on the islands the only place that she ahd ever see them wearing them was when they ahd to give testimony in court as there where rules in place that forbid them from wearing on the castle grounds where she had spent most of the time.

The fact that they wore them now meant that she was well and truly out of her element, she had spent her entire life in the walls of the capital city of the Isles as she had been born there before eventually being picked to train as a diplomat in the castle.


	3. Chapter 3

Sometime later they came across a dirt road that crossed through the center of the woods through which they had been travelling, Silk brought Kal to a halt as he waited for Arch, Velvet and Talon to join him at the front of the group.

"I think we should make camp." He murmured once the other three had joined him "We can use the remaining daylight to gather wood for fires and scout out the area."

"I agree, if there's a village someone close by then a few of us can go in and see if we can purchase some basic supplies for the rest of the journey." Arch spoke up "I don't think that Kirlia will be able to ride for very much longer and I'm going to need some more bandages to tend to Tarl" he spoke of the wounded guard with a healer's annoyance in his tone. "He keeps saying that he's fine but his wound is deep and I'm worried that if I don't get something to clean it out then it will become infected."

Silk nodded "Then we make camp, I think I spotted a group of trees a short distance back that will provide some shelter, it's far enough from the road at a small fire shouldn't attract any attention at night and no one will immediately notice us."

As the other's nodded he urged Kal to turn around face the rest of the group "We're heading back into the forest a bit so we can use the rest of daylight to establish a camp and find a nearby village."

He loosened the reins as he let Kal walk back into the woods, the horse didn't try to sneak a bite of the foliage but rather kept his head up as he sensed his rider's nervousness.

Silk didn't like the fact that they were stuck in unknown territory with a severely diminished, in both numbers and optimism, group of people. Even their way out if the king of Araleun refused help was gone, he forced away the pang of sadness at the thought of the cheerful captain of the ship. The former smuggler had been nothing but helpful and it had cost him his life.

During the ride Flynndan had filled him in on what had happened after he had passed out, the dark haired guard had helped Velvet get survivors together after they had got into the woods. A task made more difficult by the groups of traitors from the ship that had rammed theirs wandering around the woods trying to find them.

They had found him, still mounted on Kal, a few meters into the woods before finding the remaining members of the group. They had traveled only a short ways before finding the sheltered area that they had chosen to make camp in and settling down.

He reined Kal in as they drew even with the ground of trees that he had noted would make a good shelter earlier, "Here" he called over his shoulder to the rest of the group.

The three remaining guards; Asyr, Tarl and Choike followed Flynndan into the grove first; it was their task to check for threats before the rest of the group followed him.

Silk dismounted and waited for Flynndan to reappear and give the okay before he led the group into the trees, he glanced around the area and allowed a small smile to cross his face. He had chosen well, the area inside the trees wasn't large but there was plenty of space for the group and the short grass was dry.

The group started to get settled with leafs and branched being cleared away from the center of the space to the edges and cloaks being spread across the ground. Silk was about to try and figure out who they should send out as scouts when Kirlia cleared her throat from behind him and he turned to face the short diplomat.

"Yes?" he said, it was clear that she wanted something from him and from the annoyed expression on her face he guessed she was going to say that he ahd done something wrong.

"Why have we stopped?" she demanded, her tone hushed as if she didn't want the others to hear her "There are several hours of daylight left and we could make quite some headway towards the capital if we continued on and made camp further on."

He raised an eyebrow and gestured for her to join him on his cloak "There are several reasons that I've chosen to stop here for the day. Tarl's injury needs to be seen to and he shouldn't be forced to walk all day on it although he's far too prideful to say anything about it he's in quite a lot of pain."

"We've come across the first road since we made land and I want to send people out to scout around and see what's in the immediate area before we continue on. The rebels have access to ship faster than the one we took to get here and the one that pursued us so it's possible that they sent messages here and informed the king to be on the lookout for groups of people from the isles. As little as I like acknowledging the rebels as such we are currently on the run from a government with a significant amount of resources at their disposal which means that we need to be careful."

Kirlia's facial expression changed to one of surprised understanding and he nodded "There's a reason that you where sent here along with a few advisors, you have a lot to learn about working with a group. Something it appeared that you're training did little to inform you on."

"My training was rather interrupted when we started to get reports about the rebels in the castle, suddenly all the head diplomats had better things to do with their time than train apprentices. We were mostly used as scribes until they started sending groups out to ask for help." She said and he nodded.

"Of course, of course." He said, pausing a second before continuing "How good is your basic?" he asked, ignoring her confused look as she answered.

"Very good, languages are the first thing that diplomat training covers." She said and he nodded.

"In that case I'll get you to go scouting down the road with Arch, we need most of our fighters here in case we were followed and my basic is rusty." He explained, gesturing for her to head over and join the taller man on the other side of the field.


	4. Chapter 4

_**(([Start AN] I plan to upload chapters on the weekend and other days on which I have no school.[End AN]))**_

Arch glanced up from sharpening his broadsword as Silk and Kirlia approached, he get slowly to his feet and nodded at his fellow hunter. "Are we ready to go?" he asked and Silk shock his head.

"I'm not going, my basic isn't good enough and two men wearing hoods and masks will attract more attention than one."

Arch nodded "So in that case I'm going alone?" he asked and Silk shock his head again.

"Out of everyone here Kirlia actually has the best basic considering we spent most of the time on the voyage here teaching the guards how to speak it."

"She's going with me?" it took too much effort for Arch to keep from yelling the words and he glanced quickly over at the girl.

"Sorry it's just you are hardly a-" he stopped speaking as Kirlia gave him a somewhat frightening grin.

"I'm not what?" she said, her voice frighteningly sweet as she slipped one hand under her cloak to pull out a vicious looking curved dagger. "We cover self defence and scouting early in training, diplomats need to know what to do in any situation." She said.

"You still aren't as experienced as most of us, honey and self defence is not the same thing as knowing when and where to strike in order to end a fight." He retorted and she shrugged.

"It's just as well that we aren't heading out to start a fight and only looking for a village"

Arch looked to Silk, hoping that the other man would help him out only to see that the other man had an entertained glimmer in his eyes.

"Sorry mate but I think that she's got you beat on this one. Besides I have the final say and I say that she's going."

Arch sighed and rolled his eyes "Fine but you obey my orders, until we get to the castle and into the whole negotiations and diplomat-y stuff you aren't in charge of any of us." He said and the girl nodded.

"Of course, that's only fair." She said and he got a sinking feeling that at some point she would get him back for the remark.

"Fine we leave in a few minutes" he said and she nodded, turning to walk away. Before she got very far Silk spoke up.

"No horses, you two are going to walk. If people in the village think that you two are visitors at a nearby farm then you'll get less questions than if you ride in on horses. As it is we don't look very Arulen and I won't ask you to take off the mask so the less questions the better."

Arch had to slow his stride so that Kirlia could keep up, her head only came up to his chest and she had to take two steps to each of his. The only good thing that he saw about having to spend time with the diplomat was that she didn't seem interesting in speaking to him which left him time to think.

The only thing to interrupt his thoughts was the fact that she kept making humming and hah-ing sounds and he didn't know why. Her eerily blue eyes kept flickering around the area and she seemed to be slightly uncomfortable.

Suddenly she spoke "You are staring" she said, she spoke in basic and seemed annoyed with him.

Taking her cue he replied in basic "And you are making noises, why is that?" he winced as he heard his own broken sentence reach his ears. It appeared that his basic was even worse than he had thought.

"I am trying to brush up on my basic so that I can... better communicate with the people in the village. My training came to a rather abrupt halt a few months ago, we were finishing basic and starting on Scandinavian and a few other languages."

"I see."

"I would recommend that you do the same, I believe the word for your basic is broken."

"That is hardly even, I was taught basic years ago, it is far from new in my memory."

"Those were not the words that you where looking for. What you wanted to say was "that is hardly fair and it's far from fresh in my memory."

"I see"

She went silent for the moment and he struggled to think back to his apprenticeship when his mentors had taught him the other languages that they had known.

"I think that you should let me do most of the speaking if we get to a village. My basic is far better than yours and my accent is less noticeable." She spoke up again.

"Isn't when the better word to be used in that sentence?"

"No I definitely intended to use the word if, there is a chance that a village is too far away for us to reach it in a day."

He sighed "I could reach travel further on my own" he grumbled and she twisted to face him, her pale eyes glinting angrily.

"And you would be a suspicious masked man who spoke very heavily accented and broken basic. How long do you think it would take them to call in a ranger? The primary reason behind us going to find a village is too see what information has reached here about what happened on the isles."

"Understood" he retorted, "Perhaps you would like to stop yelling now? I don't think we are being followed but even a slight chance is too large of a chance."

She nodded and he noticed a slight grin crossing her features before she hastily wiped it from her face. "Why is it that you speak better basic when you are arguing?"

He shrugged "I have no-" he stopped speaking and grabbed her arm to stop her as something caught his attention.

"Look there." He said, pointing up at a tendril of smoke that he had spotted over the tree line "Your doubts are not required."

"Unfounded, the word is unfounded. Not required works in this situation but not as well."

"We should continue this conversation later, I almost didn't notice the smoke because my attention was on you." He switched back to Korlongian, to him basic just sounded so dull while his native language had a natural rhythm to it.

She nodded "Fair enough."

The village was of decent size, the houses where arraigned in a neat rows surrounding a small field. There were a few brightly coloured wagons in the center field that Kirlia made note of "A travelling fair?" she murmured and Arch nodded

"Seems likely."

They wandered slowly through the village, making note of the different shops scattered around the interior rows of the village.

"I think the market is probably the best bet if you want to get some basic supplies." Arch murmured "I need to visit the healers and pick up some things for Tarl and Silk."

"You want us to split up?" Kirlia's eyes widened slightly as she glanced up at him.

"Yes," he reached into his pocket and pulled out two pouches of coins, handing one to Kirlia "this should be enough for to cover basic costs. Try to pick up some warm clothes and other similar items."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Of course, you said that diplomats were trained to deal with difficult situation. A travelling fair is hardly a dangerous situation."

"Fair enough"

Arch chuckled "Is that word intended to be used in two different ways?"

Kirlia gave him a confused look for a moment before her eyes brightened as she got the joke "Yes, the joke was unintentional." She murmured before striding off towards the market.

He turned around and headed back towards the small shop he had noticed earlier, the building had a few bundles of herbs pinned to the outside of the roof over the door and on the railing surrounding the porch.

He paused outside the door; he wasn't sure if he should knock or just walk in, on the isles a hunter could just walk into a building or shop if they had a good reason or needed to but he wasn't sure how things worked here.

He reached out to knock on the door only for it to come open as soon as his fist touched it, he hesitated before pushing it the rest of the way open. The front room was full of herbs and other things in containers and spread across tables but void of people. He could hear furious sounding voices from the back room and he headed slowly towards the noise.

He paused at the door and glanced in, the door was opened a crack as if the last person to enter had been in too much of a hurry to bother closing it all the way. The scene inside required him to push the door opened a little bit further to verify it.

Ignoring the faint squeak of the hinges on the door he pushed it open further, there were four men in the room and one lying on a table. Three of the men were clearly hunters, the type that searched for food, as was the fourth on the table. The fifth man was clearly the healer and owner of the house and store.

The man on the table wasn't moving and the front of his shirt was ripped open and covered in blood, it was clear that he had been gored by something. Arch continued walking into the room, unnoticed by anyone inside until he walked directly up to the table.

"You require help?" he asked "I am a healer." The healer gave him an appraising look before nodding and handing him a small container of water. He turned and dipped his hands into the water to clean off all potential dirt.

"What do you require from me?" Arch asked "He is going to bleed out if we do not do something quickly to stop that. What did this to him?" he addressed the question to the other hunters in the room.

"A wild boar." One of the men spoke up and Arch gave him a glare.

"Then you are fools, boars are not valid sources of food and he would not have been able to suffer these wounds if you had been hunting with spears, horses and bows." He snapped before returning his attention to the patient.

"I need something to fill the wound" he fumbled for the words that he needed in to describe what needed to be done and settled for gesturing as he spoke. "Important things inside of him will collapse and break if parts of the wounds are not filled. Do you have herbs to prevent the fillings from causing more damage to him?"

The healer nodded "This is my job, I know what to do." He retorted, gesturing for the other three men to leave "I am without an apprentice which makes my job much harder."

"It is a fair thing that I am here then." Arch replied as the healer handed him some vaguely familiar looking bundles of herbs and a cloth.

"They will prevent infections if you place them in the wound with the fillings. I assume you know where to place things so I can safely remove them later on?"

"Of course, that is something that I was taught early on." Arch retorted, carefully shredding the herbs into small pieces "You do not crush them?" he asked.

"No, it's easier for me to remove them once the wound has improved if they are in larger pieces." The healer replied.

"But dried and crushed pieces can dissolve harmlessly in the body if they are left in." Arch retorted and the healers shock his head.

"Larger pieces can be attached to the fillings and harmlessly removed at the same time, letting too much of these particular herbs remain in the body could cause a reaction."

"It seems I was trained in the use of similar herbs, not the same ones." Arch replied, it always bewildered him how easy it was for people to fall into easy banter when working together.

The healer moved around to the other side of the prone man, he held a bone needle threaded with a thin length of string.

"Is there enough flesh left for you to do that?" Arch asked, stepping back and dipping his hands into a small container of water to clean off the blood.

"I can use some very tightly pulled cloth to fill in the gaps until the skin starts to grow back, I just have to be cautious in doing so." Suddenly the healer seemed angry.

"You were correct, these men are fools. They went out hunting boars without proper equipment and I doubt that he will recover to the point to the point at which he will be able to hunt again."

Arch shrugged "Fools will only learn from their experiences, the other men will know not to hunt things that they are not prepared to deal with. It is in no way your fault if men in this village are born without the ability to figure things out without direct experience"

The healer glanced up at him "You are very clever friend, is there any reason that you were here today?" he asked and Arch blinked in surprise.

"I just need to purchase some herbs and bandages for a few friends."

"I see, you can go and take what you need from the front room free of charge." The healer paused "If you don't mind me asking, where are you from friend? Your accent makes you a foreigner but I don't think I've ever encountered someone else with it. The mask you wear looks like it has some meaning but I've never seen it."

"Thank you for your..." Arch fumbled to think of the word that should go with the rest of the sentence "helpfulness." The word seemed wrong but it still fit.

He turned quickly and left the room before the healer could continue to speak; this was an issue of his, he trusted too easily during banter. His plan when he had walked into the shop had been to speak only a few words so his accent might go unnoticed but instead he had engaged in a long conversation.

He searched around behind the counter until he found a decent sized cloth bag that could hold all the herbs that he needed. Then he searched through the shop, there were herbs sorted painstakingly into many small containers throughout the shop and he clenched his teeth as he tried to figure out which ones he could use safely, many of the herbs looked vaguely familiar but not to the point where he felt comfortable using them.

He finally came across a section full of herbs that he recognized, they appeared older than the other unfamiliar herbs. He reached out and picked a small leaf that he knew to be harmless, pulling a small piece of he touched to his tongue. The bitter taste made him shiver and drawback, the flavour meant that the herbs where still usable.

He carefully gathered handfuls of herbs and placed them in the bag, the herbs would be fine if they were kept together in this form. Once the bag was filled to bursting he pulled the strings to close it and placed it in the small shoulder bag he carried.

He paused before leaving and turned back to the table at the center of the room, across which the tools of a healers trade where scattered. He grabbed a second bag into which he stuffed a mortar and pestle before putting that in the shoulder bag as well.

He left immediately after that, closing the door behind as he turned to the market.

Jon, the healer, stepped out of the back rooms as soon as the door closed; he made his way across the main room. The stranger had ransacked the herbs that he had gotten some time ago from traders who had sailed from the Korlonig isles and not touched much of anything else.

He had been unable to place the man's nationality by accent alone but the herbs he used had told him much more. It was rare for him to see anyone who had not been born in Araluen, on occasion traders made their way down to the small village but even then ones who orientated from other countries were rare.

It was evident that the man had been trained as a healer and the quick examination that he had been able to give the hunter showed that he had recently dealt with some grievously injured patients.

It seemed that the rumours that had reached Araluen about troubles in the Korlonig isles had more truth to them than he had initially thought.


	5. Chapter 5

Kirlia shifted her weight on her heels as she looked up at the brightly coloured banners that streamed from poles placed throughout the market place. It seemed that they had some sort of meaning with each colour corresponding to a section of the market but she couldn't wrap her head around it.

She narrowed her eyes before finally taking a step forward into the market she had stood outside for quite some time trying to work up the courage that she would need before she entered into another crowd of people, last time she ahd done so it had not ended very well. A memory came to mind as she took the step forward.

_She felt Talon grab her hand; the group of guards that had been sent with them on their way to meet the others on the ship formed a protective circle around the two of them but the physical barrier didn't prevent her from hearing the cries of people who desperately wanted to get off the island and away from the capital,_

_Their pleading burned her ears and she had to look down at the ground to prevent her emotions from being scene. The people needed a way off the isle and she was taking one of the only boats that would be able to take them, if they saw any sign of weakness on her face then they would try and break through the guard barrier to get to her. _

_Suddenly the guard line broke and Talon stepped in front of her, his hand going for the knife at hung at his waist as he physically blocked the people who had broken through the circle. The guards closed the line behind him and in front of Kirlia as she screamed his name..._

The memory was forced from her head as a boy's voice caught her ear and she turned to face the speaker.

"And here I thought that you where just going to get really close and then walk away." The boy seemed a bit older than her sixteen years with tanned skin and dark eyes.

When she turned to continue walking he moved from where he had been leaned against a fence post and fell into step beside her.

"Look I wasn't trying to insult you, it was a joke. Most of the girls in this village can't get up enough courage to walk in here without their parents or betrothed alone side of them so there is no shame in taking some time to get yours up."

"Why is that?"

He looked taken aback, as if he hadn't expected her to start speaking without some more convincing or banter from his end so she asked again.

"Why are young girls so afraid to enter a traveling market alone?"

He grinned "Their parents keep telling them that we will seduce them away into our whirlwind life of danger and passion or something of the like."

"I see, do you seduce young girls into said life style?"

"Some people need a little more excitement in their lives than life in a boring out of the way village can provide for them."

"I can assure you that I have plenty of excitement in my life, I have no desire to join a traveling market."

"Some people also join us to get away from the excitement in their-"

She cut him off with an annoyed glare "Running from my problems would not be the correct thing to do. Running away from my problems with you, a boy who likes my looks and doesn't know me, would be a mistake."

He winced "You wound me, what makes you think I am so shallow?"

"How quickly you singled me out, I've heard that travelers like your family try and recruit young people who are unhappy with their lives and look like they want a way out."

"So you admit all of these apply to you?" he retorted and she shook her head.

"No I just think you are bad at picking potential candidates. I imagine that there is some training that your elders give you before you are chosen for this job, perhaps you should go and get a refresher?"

With that snarky retort she quicken her pace and soon out distanced the boy whose stride had faulted at her casual insult.

Her eyes narrowed as she tried to figure out what she should look for first, she knew that she needed to gather some basic supplies for the group and what they needed but she also ahd a very limited budget.

_Food first, we're good on supplies for the horses and we need some clothing_ she thought as she headed over towards the stalls that seemed to carry salted meats and other edibles.

She haggled hard; the venders tried to keep the prices high, raising them when they saw the coins that she wanted to pay with but she managed to bargain them down to what she saw as a decent cost for each item and supply.

As she stepped away with a far lighter purse and arms laden with bags she heard Arch speak up from behind her

"Did diplomatic training cover bargaining?" he asked and she grinned.

"Consider your question for a second, what does a diplomat do except for bargaining, given it is on a larger scale than this but it is bargaining."

Arch nodded "Fair enough. Are you ready to head back to the camp now or is there something else you have to pick up?"

She shook her head "I'm ready" she paused as a thought occurred to her "Your basic seems to have improved since we last spoke."

He shrugged "I've been wandering around the market looking for you for quite some time, there was not much else for me to do but listen to people speak."

As they left the market the way that they ahd come in she noticed the boy that had spoken to her earlier speaking to another girl their age, she didn't miss the way that he meet her eyes even as his lips formed the same lines that he had tried on her.


End file.
